I saw, as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2010, a film called Heartbeats (Les Amours Imaginaires). My friend, Luisa, and I have been going regularly to the BFI for the last 6 months or so. We take it in turn to choose and book the next few films. Heartbeats was one of her selections, I went, knowing nothing about it and was totally blown away.
To give you a brief synopsis (no spoilers): the film tells the story of two best friends Marie, and Francis (a gay guy played by Dolan) who meet the gorgeous Nicolas and both fall in love with him. The film explores the love triangle and the ensuing, and inevitable complicites, especially as Nicolas plays them both.
The film is very stylistic (the slow-mo lingering shots on characters walking sometimes annoyingly so) yet is done in a beautiful way that reminds me of a Vogue magazine photo shoot. There are obvious nods to other films - the annoying, aforementioned slow-mo shots can be seen in In The Mood For Love. I wonder if these would be irritating to watch a 2nd time round - which, since it's not on general release yet, I'm yet to do.
BUT this is of little consequence, and the plot almost is too. The most incredible thing about this film is Xavier Dolan.
I'm in love with him.
Unfortunately he's gay (bien sur).
See how beautiful he is?
This young French Canadian (21 tiny years) not only starred as one of the 3 main characters, he wrote and directed it (his 2nd feature film - J'ai Tue Ma Mere was his first), did the costume design, some of the editing, even designed the press pack for the film...
Although you can see that some of his stylistic techniques need perhaps a little development, he by no means has plenty of time to find his own feet. It is a fantastic film and I can't wait to see what he does next, albeit being just a tad jealous of his talents and achievements so far...
Oh and it won Best Film at this year's Sydney Film Festival, so I'm obviously not this film's only fan.
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